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Nov 24, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
Maria Voce’s talk was at the heart of the three weeks study event in Paris of the 2012 Semaines Sociales (23-25 November). She spoke in the plenary session on the afternoon of the 24th, on the topic of ‘Men and Women in the Church’. It is not a question of power but of love was the message that emerged from what she said. She was speaking in conjunction with the theologian Alphonse Borras and Anne Ponce, editor in chief of the Roman Catholic journal Pèlerin.
In an institution where the hierarchy is all male, what recognition can be given to the increasing contribution given by women? This question arose in the afternoon. Maria Voce was happy to speak to it and giving a witness from the perspective of women at the head of a Movement with wide-ranging membership, spread throughout the world and founded by a woman, Chiara Lubich. This Movement, according to its Statutes, will always have a woman at its head. Nonetheless, unity in distinction is part of the Movement’s DNA and so the exercise of leadership is conducted jointly by men and women.
Maria Voce emphasized in first place how the role of men and women must be understood ‘in the light of God’s plan for humanity. Created by God “in his image and likeness” (Gn 2:26), they are called to participate in the intimacy of his inner life and to live in a mutual communion of love, following the model of God who is Love, Trinity. Hence the dignity of men and women is rooted in God the creator. If women cannot have ecclesiastical roles, they have the greatest of charisms: love. Women can mirror Mary, the greatest creature that exists, the One who lived love in a perfect way.’
Having outlined the history and make-up of the Focolare Movement, Maria Voce put the question: ‘How is it possible to keep all these persons united, in a single family? In the Focolare Movement more importance is given to life than to structures, even though these latter are useful.’ In the past the Church frequently tested this structure ‘in particular with regard to its having a woman, Chiara Lubich, as its founder and President. The attempts at putting it under another body or its being absorbed by the ecclesiastical hierarchy were numerous. To begin with it seemed that the head of the Movement should be a man and if possible a priest. Chiara, and with her the whole Movement, always maintained unconditional obedience to the will of the Church. The words of the gospel ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me’ (Lk 10:16) were to be respected, even if it seemed to her that a man at the head of this Work of God would have altered its very nature which, no one knew better than she, was born of God and not as a human project.’
Her comments emphasized that the ‘recognition of women in the Church demands a kind of “struggle”, that is of faithfulness to oneself, to one’s conscience and, in the final analysis, to God’s plan. But in this case it is a “struggle” that for Chiara had “Easter” characteristics, that is, of death and resurrection, which allow the full manifestation of God’s plan, of his will, for the role of women.’
‘The fact of having female presidency,’ Maria Voce continued, ‘is very significant. It indicates a distinction between the power to govern and the importance of the charismatic dimension.’ This was the message launched to the Church ‘to underline the priority of love, a priority that is not simply a feminine monopoly. Certainly women, given their predisposition to maternity, have a tremendous capacity for love which gives them the ability to perceive within themselves what the other person is living, as only a mother can.’ Maria Voce emphasized that ‘true’ power rests in gospel love that generates the presence of Jesus in the midst of the community, affirming that when something is built on this basis ‘an amazing and radical transformation takes place.’
Afterwards Maria Voce also said, ‘Unity between men and women is always a delicate balance. Each must rediscover the value of the other, and both must not forget that diversity is a richness – and neither they must tire of constantly beginning again on the royal road of dialogue.’ And a Movement that ‘wishes to witness to the unity of the human family must, before all else, make certain of its own unity within itself.’ In conclusion she recalled that we must be aware ‘that no ecclesiastical structure exists for itself alone but for the good of humanity that surrounds it.’
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Nov 24, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
The contribution of women at the recent Synod on the New Evangelisation was also expressed by the voice of Professor Ernestine Sikujua Kinyabuuma from Congo. A member of the Focolare Movement, the African lecturer highlighted the importance of the New Evangelisation in Africa where the faith is still young and in need of strengthening. “In the African world,” she explained, “the human person is divided within. There is a struggle between two irreconcilable forces: traditional culture and religion. Then there is the phenomenon of the so-called “revival churches” that present a Gospel of prosperity and success, and it is difficult to distinguish between what are authentic Christian values and what is the influence of the Western world. The African is in search of a relationship with God, but an insufficient catechetical foundation allows him to be drawn into a search for another superior force that can bring protection and prosperity.”
As a lecturer, Ernestine is in constant contact with students. During her intervention at the Synod she said that she came to realize that young people, in spite of the fact that they live immersed in a culture of “ease”, they are in search of a great ideal and of a more radical life based on the Gospel. She presented a few experiences of young people belonging to the Focolare Movement who gave testimony to an everyday life that is based on living the Word of God. Many others do not remain indifferent to this, but come into contact with Christian values.
“In the midst of the changes brought by globalisation, Africa is undergoing a crisis at every level: political, economic and cultural. For this reason, the people react in various ways as they try to find a way out,” she explained in her intervention by recounting a few experiences of the local Focolare community that were illuminated by the desire to live Jesus words: “Insofar as you did these things to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt. 2:40). Together they reconstructed three blocks of dormitory buildings in the central prison of Lubumbashi with the help of an international NGO. They built a tailor shop so that prisoners could learn a trade, and a shop where basic food products could be sold, along with other basic needs at a cost that was favourable to the prisoners.
In an interview with the Italian Radio Station “Inblu”, she added: “This has been a new and enriching and beautiful experience, because it has brought me into the heart of the Church.” And when she was asked: “Why a New Evangelisation for Africa and, in particular, for you own country of Democratic Republic of the Congo?” Ernestine responded: “There have been 2000 years of evangelization in Europe; for us only two centuries. In the scientific world where I work, the African goes to church, but then when he steps out of the church he goes looking for ‘supernatural forces’ that will bring him more success at work, more intelligence. . . And so the message of the New Evangelisation is quite important for us, in order to help us realize that all the answers we are looking for are to be found in Jesus. There’s no need to search elsewhere.”
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Nov 23, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
(from left) Rev. Mario Dorsonville , Marco Desalvo, and Clare Zanzucchi at the awarding ceremony
One day, on his way into the Spanish Catholic Center of Washington, Rev. Mario Dorsonville, who directs Immigration and Refugee Services at Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Washington, was stopped by a young man who grabbed him by the arm. He told him that he had a lot of pain in his heart. “Let’s go find a doctor,” Dorsonville told him. “No,” answered the young man, because his pain stemmed from being an undocumented immigrant, from not being able to find a job. He didn’t know how he could face his children at the end of the day.
“I was thinking that there is no worse poverty than when we say to people that they’re invisible,” says Dorsonville.
This is what journalist Marylin Boesch wrote in the opening paragraph of her Living City magazine article, published recently, in which she gave a description of the Spanish Catholic Centre in Washington. It’s a so-called “lab of faith” where “these people are visible”. The centre’s mission is to provide the best quality of integrated services to immigrants and refugees in order to bring back hope and dignity to their lives and to make them more confident, respected, and effective members of American society. It does this by providing medical and dental clinics, counselling centres, English classes and job training programs.
Fr Mario Dorsonville received the Luminosa Award 2012, on behalf of the Spanish Catholic Centre, on 7 November in the presence of more than 250 diplomats, politicians, representatives of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian faith and others of no particular faith tradition gathered at The Catholic University of America in Washington.
“This prize encourages us even more to illuminate the darkness around us through service to our neighbour,” said Fr Mario Dorsonville in his acceptance speech.
As the award was sponsored by the Focolare Movement, during the conferral ceremony, Marco Desalvo and Clare Zanzucchi, Focolare Co-Directors of the eastern region of the United States, shared a reflection by the Movement’s founder, Chiara Lubich (1920-2008), on love of neighbour, one of the pearls of the Focolare’s spirituality of unity: “The Holy Spirit, enlightening us with his charism, said to us:’ your brother, your sister… can become your way to God, an opening, a door, a path, a passageway that leads to union with him. And if we have gained this by loving our neighbours, then they are not only our beneficiaries, but our benefactors as well; they have given us the best of what we had hoped for.” Very much in tune with the experience of the Spanish Catholic Center, this reading strongly resonated in those present, affirming and giving light to their day-to-day work in favour of those in need.
“It is an active, constant and courageous service that gives dignity to many people of diverse ethnic and social origins who are in difficulty due to various circumstances, thus helping them to become an integral part of society” – wrote Focolare president Maria Voce in her message to Fr Dorsonville.
The Luminosa Award for Unity of the Focolare, established in 1987, honours persons or associations whose lives and works have given a significant contribution to building bridges of mutual understanding and concern among diverse Christian denominations, major faith traditions and people of good will in all aspects of social life.
Nov 22, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
It will be a moment of gathering the fruits from a network of relationships and common experiences that have matured over the years in many Italian cities. New possibilities have been opened amid the diversity of religious and cultural perspectives. The family will be presented as the common setting for an exchange of testimonies and reflections on dialogue and in listening to one another. The administrative capital of the Province of Brescia will host this unique workshop on Sunday, November 25, 2012 at Pala Brescia Theatre. The workshop will be attended by 2000 people of Christian and Muslim families from more than 50 cities of North Italy. This is the region that has seen the highest presence of new citizens who have emigrated to Italy and made it their home. The workshop is the result of a process of welcoming and friendship that has been going on for years between Christians and Muslims, and is rooted in their common faith in God. It is a dialogue that is lived out in daily life and draws on the ideal of universal brotherhood that inspires both the Focolare Movement and some members of the Islamic faith who belong to several Muslim communities in Italy. The process has been one of mutual recognition which has woven a fabric of wholesome friendship that now spreads from the North to the South of the Italian peninsula as it also does in many other countries of the world. Back in 2010 a national meeting was held in the Focolare town of Loppiano with 600 Muslim and Christian participants. It included several religious and civil authorities and was entitled “Common Pathways for Brotherhood.” Brescia 2012 is one step forward in the project that will merge into a national event in Rome, Italy in May 2013 that hopes to further the construction of this common pathway. The November 25th event will be attended by religious and civil authorities, including the Bishop of Brescia, Luciano Monari, the Imam of the Islamic Community of Brescia, Dr. Amyn Hasmy and many other Imams and leaders of the Muslim community in North Italy. The panel discussion that will be the centrepiece of the event will focus on the family as a promoter of the common good in the city. Therefore the family be presented as a resource and not as a problem, and the relationship between families will be highlighted as a space in which to influence the surrounding society with its virtues through the construction of a network of solidarity and shared projects. The year 2013 is the European Year of Citizenship. In this sense the promotors are convinced that families will also be able to bring their own important contribution to the formation and training of responsible citizens who are actively involved in pursuing the common good. Promotors:
- Ucoii (Union of Islamic Communities in Italy)
- Crii (Council of Islamic Italian Relations)
- Gmi (Muslim Youths of Italy)
- Admi (Muslim Womens Association of Italy)
- Islamic Community of Triveneto
- Islamic Cultural Centre of Brescia
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Nov 21, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
Stuck for days under the shelling of the Catholic area of the Gaza Strip, three focolarini were liberated only as a result of intervention by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and the French, Korean and Italian consulates. They managed to get way under escort by a United Nations convoy. This is an interview with two of them who are experiencing at first hand the start of the new crisis.
‘It’s not possible to understand much of what’s happening, nor what people want to achieve. Certainly things are really bad, and the impression is that we’re on the edge of an abyss,’ I was told in a phone call with two focolarine in Jerusalem who had been caught by surprise in the Israeli bombardment while visiting Focolare friends in the Gaza strip.
‘We left on the Wednesday, Corres from Korea, Gérard from France and I, to visit our community,’ says 35 year-old nurse Francesca, living for more than ten years in Jerusalem. ‘We wanted to go there at other times in the last few months, but various circumstances meant the trip was put off. As soon as we arrived, after hearing the deafening explosion, we were told of the death of Hamas’s military leader. From that moment on, except for very brief moments, it was effectively impossible to leave the tiny Christian quarter where we were staying.’
Corres took up the story, ‘We had brought aid collected by the Movement’s friends for our friends in Gaza: clothing, educational material, games for the children, food. We distributed these few things among our Christian friends, in a deeply serene atmosphere. We are witnesses of the generosity of these people, who often when about to receive gifts pointed out other families more in need than they. Despite hearing the bombardment, we can say we were all quite calm. We prayed together, met small groups who wanted news of our community in Israel, Palestine and the world. We played with the children and took tea with young people and adults.’
Francesca spoke again, ‘We stayed on the ground floor of the houses, without any shelter, without siren warnings: because shelters and sirens don’t exist in Gaza. People live in constant danger. We were struck by the faith of these people, their endless hope, so strong that it was they who encouraged us. They showed no fear and kept on saying to us: “We are in God’s hands.” Certainly we could hear the explosions (it was impossible not to!), but we carried on living the normality and simplicity of a life where we are brothers and sisters of one another. We prepared meals for parties, despite everything. One of our friends went as far as the harbour to buy fresh fish for us and one morning they cooked pizza in the oven for our breakfast.’ The most difficult moment was at night when, with each explosion, the windows and the ground shook, as the planes flew overhead of the people in Gaza City.
Of course all three focolarini had registered their presence with the UN who were preparing an expedition to withdraw foreigners from the Gaza Strip. For two days they went to the exit point, but each time there was a problem that stopped them leaving, until a UN convoy was able to escort people away.
Francesca concluded by saying, ‘I brought away with me a picture of those days: we had taken colouring books and paints with us. A boy painted a house under a tree. But at the centre of the house there was a missile. These children have grown up without peace, without calm.’
By Michele Zanzucchi (Source: Città Nuova online)
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Nov 20, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
What is your country like, what situation have you left behind?
My only experience of war used to be from watching TV about Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq… I’d never have imagined that it would break out in Syria. We were a ‘rainbow nation’ with people of every sort, then suddenly war broke out and the colours disappeared: we became simply black and white. Neighbours looked at neighbours with suspicion, we lost our great tradition, peace, the ability to live together, our homes…We were forced to run away, losing our work and our friends… and people withdrew from one another. After living side by side we found ourselves on opposite banks. In every family there are people who have disappeared, kidnapped, orphans, killed…
Homs used to be a city full of life. We heard of gun battles elsewhere in the country and we thought that the TV was exaggerating. But sadly our city became a place where the warring parties clashed. Then we found ourselves in the midst of a gun battle. At that point I realized that Homs too had been engulfed by the war.
What is it like to experience war?
It means that the past instantly disappears – no more peace, no more freedom to go where you want without fear. Syria had been a safe country, where no one asked what your religion was. A friend of mine died, the first person I lost in the war. He loved peace. The people who die are just numbers: 30 dead today, 50 yesterday… But each one has a name, a father, a mother… When I found myself in church at my friend’s funeral, I cried as I have never cried before. When the priest asked: ‘What would Christ say now? Forgive!’, there was a stunned silence. All you could hear was the sound of people breathing. Everyone replied that we had to forgive, but I couldn’t manage it. I ran out in tears, I was burning with the wish to run over some of the killers with my car. But then I thought: what am I doing? I said to myself, should I also ill someone like my friend? I reversed the car and went back home. I prayed, God give me patience. I mustn’t kill, but avoid causing the evil I have suffered.
What do you hope for Syria in the future?
To see the country return to how it was, in peace. ‘Put away your sword and live in peace’, this ought to be the message of all religions. I hope that a media war like this would encourage young people to make peace and not war. Religious leaders should give a message of peace, so that the young can rebuild Syria.
Source: TV 2000, interview with Wael, 16 October 2012
